Suddenly awake in the middle of the night, and I think the way around some of the problems with this is that it’s not about the linear time travel at all https://twitter.com/36SaveFiles/status/1298015944925618176

Instead this is about skipping through the multiverse; yibo’s job is to travel through the various futures and fold them back together, to repair the fractured timestream

That’s what he’s been told, anyway; in reality he’s collapsing “undesirable” offshoots. Ever have a particularly vivid dream or a sense of deja vu? Collapsed offshoot.

The people Xiao Zhan works for believe that offshoots should have their own chances to survive, that the multiverse should be allowed to unfold when it springs a new branch.

When all is said and done Yibo looks around at the place they’ve landed in, at Xiao Zhan.

“Do you think they’re happy?” he asks. “Us. All the other ones.”

Xiao Zhan puts his hands in his pockets and looks at the horizon. I think they try.”

Yibo considers this. “Do you think we could try?”

Xiao Zhan turns to him and smiles, warm like a summer breeze, like the sun setting behind him. “I’d like nothing better.”